German Patent Application DE 38 13 436 A1 describes a current source designed to prevent the saturation of a given lateral pnp-transistor structure of an integrated switching arrangement, independently of type and without restricting the operating range. For this purpose, a protective collector placed concentrically around the self-concentric collector is used. German Patent Application DE 38 13 436 A1 does not disclose any protection against overvoltages. Moreover, the concentric protective collector requires a large transistor surface, and such a large transistor surface should be avoided.